Sonically overwhelming, lyrically chilling, musically challenging, with subtle nods to the likes of Joy Division and Sonic Youth. This is the best album we’ve heard in 2012. Period. 

I can see big things in the future for this fraternal duo.

The band sounds ready to escape something here, as a bucking rhythm and Strokes-like melody peeks through a hovering coal-dust cloud of distorted guitar sustain and reverb

[It's] super muddy and soaked in reverb and distortion, but somewhere in this band's late '80s/early '90s record collection of noisy post-punk and shoegaze, must lie a scratched up, overplayed copy of Is This It that can't help but leave its mark on these songs.

One of the year's more arresting debuts. (4/5)

Something tells me Stagnant Pools are going to end up much more than Bloomington big.

Musically, the band has clearly found inspiration from the likes of Joy Division, Disappears, and The Jesus and Mary Chain, with an emphasis on heavy waves of drone and lots of visceral fuzz to create a slate-gray soundscape that’s as frightening as it is aggressive.